Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I've been teaching in the Classical Animation Program at Sheridan for the last 8 years, and I teach with an amazingly talented group of people.

It's also great to teach students who are focused, talented and love to draw. To see their growth as storytellers and film makers over their years at Sheridan is very rewarding.

I've earned my living mostly as an Illustrator/ Author, and designer of children's books (45 so far),with a 16 year period as co-creator and Illustrator of the Mighty Mites comic in OWL Magazine(154 episodes).

I've also pursued a career as a painter and gallery artist - with a primary focus on figurative work. I still draw the figure on Sundays at the TSA.

My one stint working in the world of Animation was one summer in the early 1960's when I painted cells for Rocket Robin Hood.

My interest in Figure Drawing and Anatomy is a natural extension of my childhood years where I spent summer holidays in an old log cabin with no electricity or running water. During day long hikes with my brothers I would collect stones,bones, sticks, feathers, frogs and snakes.

In public school I loved Illustrating my notes with detailed drawings from the world of science and nature -- and I still do.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

A graduate of Sheridan College's Classical and Computer Animation programs, Mark has spent the last 15 years working at a wide range of Toronto Animation companies and post production houses. He has been a part of numerous feature films (Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil 2, What the Bleep Do We Know), television programs (Peter Benchley's Amazon, Veritas, Jett Jackson) and commercials during that time, and continues to work as a freelance artist to the present day.

Chris has worked extensively as a commercial stop motion animator on a variety of internationally broadcast television programs. He holds an MFA in Film Studies (York University, 2007), a BA in Film Studies and English Literature (Wilfrid Laurier University, 1993), and a Diploma in Media Arts (Sheridan College, 1998).

At Sheridan he teaches Animation History, stop motion animation, mentors 4th year films, and lectures on aspects of story. Chris is an active filmmaker, concerned with themes such as family bonds, fairy tales, local histories, and cinema's role in our everyday lives. His films have been screened internationally, including the Toronto International Film Festival and The Ottawa International Animation Festival. Big fan of David Lynch and Felix The Cat.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Trevor Davies is a graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, in Vancouver. He has worked in Film & Television for over 25 years as a Broadcast Designer, Animator and Visual Effects Artist.

Trevor began his career with the NFB in Vancouver and has worked for many of the Toronto based broadcasters and studios including Nelvana and YTV. He has taught part-time for the past 10 years. Trevor currently runs CORE Animated Effects Ltd.; an independent production company where he is employed as a full-time producer.

James Caswell operates a freelance production service doing animation & live action/ effects design with an emphasis on storyboards, both traditional and digital. As a designer/illustrator, he has worked on a variety of projects: features, direct to video, series television and commercials. He works as a freelancer or as a team member as a director, producer, effects designer, character designer or storyboard artist. His projects cover a gamut of traditional 2D, stop motion, special effects and computer based animation.

James holds a Bachelor of Design: Illustration from the Ontario College of Art and Design and a Master of Arts: Media Production from Ryerson University.

His clients include Nelvana /Corus, Cuppa Coffee Animation, and Walt Disney Television Animation. He has worked with a number of famous characters in animation and continues to develop and illustrate on projects for independent production and studios.

Kaj Pindal is the most international member of the faculty as well as the most experienced. He has made films in Denmark, Sweden, Britain, the United States, and Canada. He has worked for George Lucas, The National Film Board of Canada, Derek Lamb and Richard Williams and studied animation under Disney director David Hand, Borge Ring and Art Babbitt.

Films that Kaj has worked on include I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, What on Earth?, King Size, Caninabus, The Big Bang, The City (Osaka), Horsing Around, Karate Kids and Twice Upon a Time.

Kaj created Peep and the Big Wide World as a short film and it was later developed into a TV series.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Mark Mayerson worked in the television animation industry for 29 years, doing commercials, specials and series. He spent nine years in drawn animation working as an animator before shifting to computer animation, where in addition to animating, he did modeling, rigging and some technical direction.

Projects Mark has worked on include Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, The Red Shoes, A Jazztime Tale, Ira Sleeps Over, The Care Bears vs. the Freezing Machine, Drawing Power, and Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future (the first TV series to include computer generated characters).

Mark created the cgi series Monster By Mistake, on which he also directed, wrote and produced. He also wrote for Franklin the Turtle and Jacob Two-Two, both Nelvana series.

In addition to writing for television, Mark has written articles about animation history and technology for Animation Magazine, Animation World Network, Animato, FPS, Animation Blast, CARTOONIST PROfiles, and The Comics Journal. He has contributed to two books, Animation Art and The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes, both edited by Jerry Beck.

Mark has a B.A. from the City University of New York in Mass Communications and an M.A. from York University in Film and Media Studies.

Nancy Beiman fell in love with animation at the age of 16 and studied animation technique with Ray Seti of Sunflower films in New York City. She knew after this that the love affair would last. Through an unlikely series of coincidences Nancy wound up in the first class of the famous Character Animation Program at the California Institute of the Arts. (After the second year, Nancy was the only female student in the class). Nancy was the recipient of a four-year Disney Fellowship Grant provided by the Disney family and received a BFA in Film and Character Animation but did not attend her own graduation ceremony. Through an equally unlikely coincidence, Nancy was hired a few months before her graduation to design, animate, and storyboard television commercials for Jack Zander’s famous New York studio, Zander’s Animation Parlour.

Since then, Nancy has produced, directed, designed, storyboarded, and animated on television commercials, specials, features, and new media in five different countries, written two published books, and produced two independent short films, Your Feet's Too Big and The Other Eden.

She has ‘performed’ as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Snoopy, Winnie the Pooh and other famous characters for The Walt Disney Company, Warner Brothers Animation, and Bill Melendez Productions.

Nancy cofounded Caged Beagle Animation with business partner Dean Yeagle and then, through yet another unlikely coincidence, moved to Berlin, Germany where she was a designer, sequence director and animator at the Gerhard Hahn Filmproduktion studio. From there she moved to London where she was a supervising animator (Miss Kitty) for Stephen Spielberg’s Amblimation Animation Studio’s first feature film, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.

Nancy then directed and storyboarded for Warner Brothers Animation in New York. She was the first woman to direct Bugs Bunny, who was a pleasure to work with.

After relocating to Los Angeles Nancy directed, storyboarded and animated sequences for new media projects at Philips Sidewalk Studio including The Crayon Factory, a cautionary tale about big business, and Surf City, which used the music of the Beach Boys. After this, Nancy went to Paris as a supervising animator for The Walt Disney Company on A Goofy Movie (Roxanne and Bigfoot). She then returned to Los Angeles to design and animate the three Fates in Hercules, and Billy Bones in Treasure Planet.

Nancy was nominated for an Annie for individual achievement in storyboard for Little Angelita, a charming story (written by a child) produced at Walt Disney Television Animation Special Projects, and has won the Animation category award from the National Cartoonists Society for Your Feet's Too Big.

Nancy wrote articles and interviews for Jud Hurd’s CARTOONIST PROfiles magazine for fifteen years and also interviewed and corresponded with noted animators on her own initiative. This provided much material for her two books, which are: Prepare to Board! Creating Story and Characters for Animated Features and Shorts, (Focal Press, 2007) which has been adopted as a standard text by many animation schools and recently had its third Mandarin edition.Nancy’s second book, Animated Performance (AVA Press, 2010),is newly published and covers the subject of ‘acting’ for animators (Hint: It is not done with your physical body). Now its mama is waiting to hear that she wrote it funny!

Nancy began teaching animation at the college level in 2000 and discovered a new career that continues to fascinate her. In 2007 she received her MFA in Design with a major in Computer Graphics from the Rochester Institute of Technology where she finally attended her own graduation ceremony along with some very determined parents (“I want to see her graduate from SOMETHING!” my mother was heard to say.) Nancy taught Animation, Animation History, Gesture Drawing, Storyboard, Character Design, and Layout classes for four years at RIT and her students are currently working as animators and designers at The Walt Disney Company, Blue Sky Productions, and Rhythm and Hues studios among others.

In 2008 Nancy began teaching Storyboard classes at The Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Oakville, Canada, where she works and resides today with her cat Gizmo, whom she shamelessly exploits in both her books.

Nancy has lectured on animation storyboard in Singapore and on animated performance at the National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Yunlin, Taiwan.

Nancy continues to act as advisor to professional and student animators around the world. She herself doesn’t know where she will turn up next.

Nancy is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Creative Talent Network, and the National Cartoonists Society.

Geordie Millar was born in Ontario, Canada, beginning life as an artist sketching landscapes with his father and studying the drawings of his grandfather, Architect ECS Cox. Millar went on to study drawing and painting at the Art Students League of N.Y. and the National Academy School of Fine Arts in N.Y.C. as well as actively pursuing private study.

He was the 1996 Artist-in-Residence at the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in Oradell, N.J. and his work can be found in their permanent collection. Millar is an elected member of the NY Society of Animal Artists, winning their 2007 Award of Excellence and the Patricia Allen Bott Award for Creative Excellence for work from his 2006 WALKING installation originally shown in Saint John, New Brunswick. Work from this exhibit is also in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and the New Brunswick Art Bank.

In 2008 Millar's exhibition, PROCESSION, won the Peter and Evelyn Haller Memorial Distinguished Young Artist Award from the Society of Animal Artists. His work has been exhibited throughout Canada, the United States and Europe.

I have worked as an Animator and Character Designer in Animation for the past 20 years, animating for both Warner Bros. and Disney T.V. and designing characters on several shows such as George Shrinks and Maggie and the Ferocious Beast. For the past 5 years I've enjoyed sharing my love of Character Design at Sheridan College. I recently published my first book Under the Influence - a collection of brush pen drawings.

About Me

I've worked as an animator, writer, producer and director in TV animation for 29 years. I created the cgi series Monster By Mistake.
I hold a Masters degree from York University in Cinema and Media Studies and am currently teaching animation at Sheridan College.
I can be contacted at mark(dot)mayerson(at)sheridancollege(dot)ca.